Venus

Solar System Animations + News

Venus | Rediscovered Astronomy

Venus by J.J. Del Mar

Atmosphere

Images of the atmosphere of Venus taken by the Mariner 10 probe show a light brown or tan upper layer with some patches of white. The atmosphere of Venus is so thick that it does not allow us to see the surface of the planet.

This next animantion shows the thick layers in the atmosphere of Venus visible in the ultraviolet light as taken by NASA’s Pioneer orbiter.

Animation by J.J. Del Mar | Global ultraviloet map courtesy of NASA

___________________________________________

Surface Animation

The texture image was taken from the mapping done by the NASA / USGS Magellan probe and the color was composed after the USSR Soviet era Venera probe returned images of the surface of the planet. The real color is a brownish / dark orange surface. The images were then reprocessed to remove reddish colors and enhance brown ones. This is an approximation to what the human eye would see looking at Venus and standing on its surface.

[The exaggerated golden / orange models found on the web were rendered after an artistic coloring of the surface. However, the photographs by the Soviet-era Venera probe clearly show a brownish color as it would be seen by the human eye, and not a golden / orange surface.]